Watched a go at but of the game on the live stream before going out.
I glad we did all we could to get a game on. Considerably more so than Kent did.
Felt it was harsh on Burns to be dropped after the form he is in but it is probably the right call. Roy has to play and Burns has only ever been filling in for his absence. Also felt it was a risk to play TC and no second spinner given the hot weather and how little Tom had bowled since injury. Again o was wrong and he showed us exactly why he is a class one day bowler and should be in England's plans. Hopefully we have him back for the rest of the season and hope he gets to play a couple championship games for us
Very good show by Batty to refuse to leave the square when the umpires decided to go off for rain. Kept the covers off and meant when it passed we were on much quicker. Also good from Dernbach to keep the whole team out on the pitch rather than up in the dressing room for the same reason.
We are becoming a formidable side in T20 as we are in 4 day cricket. With the addition of Plunkett next year and our young players continuing to improve I can see us becoming a real force in county cricket for years to come.
It really does feel like the last few years of building and backing our young players is really starting to come together and we are reaping the rewards. Obvious credit must go to Stewart and Di Venuto but 2 other who have been key are Batty and Graham Ford who started the process. Some other key figures along the way - Gary Wilson and Sanga.
Was there tonight. Will write some thoughts in the morning. All I'll say for now is not enough runs when there was such a short boundary. We were about 30 short.
Captaincy cost us big time in the field. Poor bowling changes giving Borthwick a second was ridiculous. Just not needed when you had already got an over from your 6th bowler and Batty had also taken a bit of a pasting. Field placing were poor and he got massively confused with his bowlers at the death. He somehow managed to get it wrong so that he couldn't bowl all his overs and he would have had to bowl Pillans for the last. Very winnable game that we threw away.
There was a very short boundary towards block 10/9 of the OCS stand. The 30 years circle was nearly three quarters of the way to the boundary. They made much better use of it than we did despite bowling their spinner from that end meaning we should have been able to exploit it.
We started well but they really put the squeeze on in the 4th over. You could see the pressure building on finch and Roy and they both went. Maddinsons innings whilst on paper it looks exceptional but in reality i found it very difficult to watch. He frustrated me big time. Considering the number of boundaries he hit he scored very few non boundaries and took up a lot of balls doing it. Yes his run rate was good but it was about when he chose to use up dot balls rather than run the 1s and 2s. He built pressure at times on the player at the other end. There was a time when Foakes had just hit a couple boundaries and was starting to look settled, I was thinking great let Foakes go big now but then he only faced one ball in the next 2 and a half overs and Maddinson barely scored any in that period so we completely lost all momentum. He did similar to Pope when he looked to be getting going. He couldn't get Wagg away but instead of just hitting the ones and twos and getting the other guy on strike he chose to swing hard at every ball when he just wasn't getting the pace of Wagg. Frustrating as it let their 6th bowler go at less than 5 an over. And then every time he hit a couple of boundaries you thought he was going to go big he always had a slow period undoing all the good work he had done.
As I said it's not often I'll criticise a player who has scored 70 off 45 balls but I found it very frustrating to watch. Towards the end I was half hoping he would get out so Clarke would have a few overs to see himself in and do some damage.
As a result I felt we left 30 runs out there.
Nevertheless I don't feel 194 was an easy target and we had a good chance of defending it. We lost this game with ball and in the field.
I'm a fan of Jade and I backed the decision to make him captain at the start of the season but I felt he made a number of errors last night which cost us badly.
Absolutely get the point in getting your 6th bowler an over in fairly early to give you flexibility later on but to give him a second when he was bowling to the short boundary was suicide. I said it at the time it will go wrong. Finch was fielding just in front of us and seems as flabbergasted by the decision as the rest of us! It was just completely unnecessary given we had already got 3 out of batty and the quicks had been better than the spinners.
Having given Borthwick that over and it going for a lot it was clear wickets was the only way we were going to win. We had to bring on either Jade or Tom to get one quickly. Instead we had Clarke who managed to reign it back in a bit but never looked that threatening and Pillans who took a bit of punishment. Jade realised this too late and brought Tom back but in doing so he got himself in a complete muddle over his bowlers and left himself not able to bowl out despite being our least expensive bowler.
And finally with the field placings from the 17th over onwards when they were close to winning and needed less than t an over we had no one saving one on the leg side. Which consequently was also the long boundary. We simply allowed them ones and twos through there and they cruised it. There were also 3 or 4 catching opportunities in that areas which might have given us half a sniff. Including the skied one which jade chased all the way as there was no one within 40 towards of it.
To sum up. They deserved to win but we really shouldn't have let them.
Middlesex post 221/5 , Stirling with 109 from 58 after being dropped 1st ball of the innings by Maddinson
Didn't see Tuesday night's game as I was away and there was no WiFi or signal in deepest darkest Camber Sands but all the commentators have said we bowled too many short and wide balls and tonight has been the same.
If Finch and Roy stay in for a while there is every chance of chasing this down but get one or both early and i can't see us winning.
Also, Maddinson has the worst moustache I've ever seen.
Comments
When they are both in the mood I don't think there is a better opening pair in this format than Roy and Finch- they made it look easy.
I wouldn't worry too much about the 100 ball thing, T10 is the future!!!!!
I glad we did all we could to get a game on. Considerably more so than Kent did.
Felt it was harsh on Burns to be dropped after the form he is in but it is probably the right call. Roy has to play and Burns has only ever been filling in for his absence. Also felt it was a risk to play TC and no second spinner given the hot weather and how little Tom had bowled since injury. Again o was wrong and he showed us exactly why he is a class one day bowler and should be in England's plans. Hopefully we have him back for the rest of the season and hope he gets to play a couple championship games for us
Very good show by Batty to refuse to leave the square when the umpires decided to go off for rain. Kept the covers off and meant when it passed we were on much quicker. Also good from Dernbach to keep the whole team out on the pitch rather than up in the dressing room for the same reason.
We are becoming a formidable side in T20 as we are in 4 day cricket. With the addition of Plunkett next year and our young players continuing to improve I can see us becoming a real force in county cricket for years to come.
It really does feel like the last few years of building and backing our young players is really starting to come together and we are reaping the rewards. Obvious credit must go to Stewart and Di Venuto but 2 other who have been key are Batty and Graham Ford who started the process. Some other key figures along the way - Gary Wilson and Sanga.
Captaincy cost us big time in the field. Poor bowling changes giving Borthwick a second was ridiculous. Just not needed when you had already got an over from your 6th bowler and Batty had also taken a bit of a pasting. Field placing were poor and he got massively confused with his bowlers at the death. He somehow managed to get it wrong so that he couldn't bowl all his overs and he would have had to bowl Pillans for the last. Very winnable game that we threw away.
There was a very short boundary towards block 10/9 of the OCS stand. The 30 years circle was nearly three quarters of the way to the boundary. They made much better use of it than we did despite bowling their spinner from that end meaning we should have been able to exploit it.
We started well but they really put the squeeze on in the 4th over. You could see the pressure building on finch and Roy and they both went. Maddinsons innings whilst on paper it looks exceptional but in reality i found it very difficult to watch. He frustrated me big time. Considering the number of boundaries he hit he scored very few non boundaries and took up a lot of balls doing it. Yes his run rate was good but it was about when he chose to use up dot balls rather than run the 1s and 2s. He built pressure at times on the player at the other end. There was a time when Foakes had just hit a couple boundaries and was starting to look settled, I was thinking great let Foakes go big now but then he only faced one ball in the next 2 and a half overs and Maddinson barely scored any in that period so we completely lost all momentum. He did similar to Pope when he looked to be getting going. He couldn't get Wagg away but instead of just hitting the ones and twos and getting the other guy on strike he chose to swing hard at every ball when he just wasn't getting the pace of Wagg. Frustrating as it let their 6th bowler go at less than 5 an over. And then every time he hit a couple of boundaries you thought he was going to go big he always had a slow period undoing all the good work he had done.
As I said it's not often I'll criticise a player who has scored 70 off 45 balls but I found it very frustrating to watch. Towards the end I was half hoping he would get out so Clarke would have a few overs to see himself in and do some damage.
As a result I felt we left 30 runs out there.
Nevertheless I don't feel 194 was an easy target and we had a good chance of defending it. We lost this game with ball and in the field.
I'm a fan of Jade and I backed the decision to make him captain at the start of the season but I felt he made a number of errors last night which cost us badly.
Absolutely get the point in getting your 6th bowler an over in fairly early to give you flexibility later on but to give him a second when he was bowling to the short boundary was suicide. I said it at the time it will go wrong. Finch was fielding just in front of us and seems as flabbergasted by the decision as the rest of us! It was just completely unnecessary given we had already got 3 out of batty and the quicks had been better than the spinners.
Having given Borthwick that over and it going for a lot it was clear wickets was the only way we were going to win. We had to bring on either Jade or Tom to get one quickly. Instead we had Clarke who managed to reign it back in a bit but never looked that threatening and Pillans who took a bit of punishment. Jade realised this too late and brought Tom back but in doing so he got himself in a complete muddle over his bowlers and left himself not able to bowl out despite being our least expensive bowler.
And finally with the field placings from the 17th over onwards when they were close to winning and needed less than t an over we had no one saving one on the leg side. Which consequently was also the long boundary. We simply allowed them ones and twos through there and they cruised it. There were also 3 or 4 catching opportunities in that areas which might have given us half a sniff. Including the skied one which jade chased all the way as there was no one within 40 towards of it.
To sum up. They deserved to win but we really shouldn't have let them.
Didn't see Tuesday night's game as I was away and there was no WiFi or signal in deepest darkest Camber Sands but all the commentators have said we bowled too many short and wide balls and tonight has been the same.
If Finch and Roy stay in for a while there is every chance of chasing this down but get one or both early and i can't see us winning.
Also, Maddinson has the worst moustache I've ever seen.
Roy out for 84
amazing